Alan Olav Walker (born 24 August 1997) is a Norwegian DJ and record producer.[2] He is best known for his 2015 single "Faded", which received platinum certifications in over 10 countries. He was ranked 36th on DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs list of 2018, placing 19 positions lower than the previous year.[3]

Walker is a son of Hilde Omdal Walker, a Norwegian, and Philip Alan Walker, an Englishman.[4][5] By birth, he was granted dual citizenship, both in Norway and the United Kingdom on the basis of his parental origin. At the age of two, he moved to Bergen,[2] Norway with his parents and sister.[6] Walker grew up with two siblings, an older sister, Camilla, born in England, and a younger brother, Andreas, born in Norway.

Growing up in the digital era, Walker found an early interest in computers, which later turned into a fascination for programming and graphic design. He initially had no musical background; however, he later taught himself by watching tutorials on YouTube based on music production.[7]

In 2012, Walker, was listening to a song by David Whistle (formerly known as DJ Ness), and reached out to the Italian DJ to find out how he produced his music. He was inspired by EDM producers K-391 and Ahrix, and is also influenced by film composers like Hans Zimmer and Steve Jablonsky.[8] He started all his music on his laptop with FL Studio. In July 2012, with the help and feedback from his fans online, he began pursuing his music production career and slowly began posting his music to YouTube and SoundCloud. Started as a bedroom producer, he was better known as DJ Walkzz before signing a record contract and releasing his debut single in 2014.

Walker released the track "Fade" on 17 August 2014.[9] The track gained attention after its re-release via the record label NoCopyrightSounds on 19 November.[10] Walker stated that the creation of the track was inspired by K-391 and Ahrix, whose tracks were also picked up by the record label. The track has over 300 million views on YouTube,[11] 79 million plays on Spotify,[12] and 20 million streams on SoundCloud.[13] It has become the most popular track on the channel, and is widely used by YouTubers in their videos. The tracks "Spectre" and "Force" followed in 2015.

Walker signed with MER Musikk under Sony Music Sweden and his next single, "Faded", was a remastered vocal version of "Fade". It was released on 8 December and featured uncredited Naustdal pop singer Iselin Solheim.[14] The single topped the year-end charts in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden, iTunes charts in 32 countries, as well as entering top 10 in Spotify Global Chart. The music video on YouTube has over 2.0 billion views and 13 million likes,[15] placing it among the top 10 most liked YouTube videos. It has over 780 million plays on Spotify,[16] and is also one of the Top 10 Most Shazamed tracks of 2016.[17] The single also received official remixes from Tiësto,[18]Dash Berlin and Hardwell. He later released an acoustic "restrung" version of the song, with all the EDM elements taken out.[19]

On 27 February, Walker made his live performance debut at the WinterX Games in Oslo, where he performed 15 tracks including the song "Faded" together with Iselin Solheim.[21][22]

By March, Walker had produced 30 to 40 songs in total, but "Faded" marks his first single with Sony Music Sweden, and the first to achieve such global success.[17]

On 7 April, Walker teamed up with Swedish singer Zara Larsson at the Echo Awards in Germany. Together they performed each other's songs "Faded" and "Never Forget You".[23] Four weeks previously, he achieved the first place on NRJ Euro Hot 30 for the first time, which only has been achieved by one other Norwegian artist, Kygo.[24]

The single "Sing Me to Sleep" was released on 3 June, featuring female vocalist Iselin Solheim, the same vocalist in "Faded". The song topped iTunes charts in 7 countries. Its music video on YouTube has over 400 million views,[25] and it also reached 170 million plays on Spotify.[26]

The single "Alone" was released on 1. December, featuring uncredited Swedish singer Noonie Bao.[27] The music video on YouTube has over 740 million views,[28] the track also gained over 210 million plays on Spotify.[29] The song was described as "the final piece of a trilogy consisting of 'Faded', 'Sing Me To Sleep' and 'Alone'" by Gunnar Greeve, Walker's manager and co-writer for the single.[30]

On 21 and 22 December, Walker held the concert "Alan Walker is Heading Home" in his hometown Bergen for the first time at USF Verftet, where he performed 16 songs and tracks together with Angelina Jordan, Marius Samuelsen, Alexandra Rotan, Yosef Wolde-Mariam and Tove Styrke as singers.[31][32] The concert was officially live-streamed on YouTube.[33] He premiered several unreleased tracks, including a restrung version of "Sing Me to Sleep", as well as "Sky" and "Heading Home", the latter of which was first performed during his debut at Winter X Games. The song "The Spectre", a remastered version of his earlier track "Spectre", was also performed during the concert.

On 23 December, Walker released the video for the single "Routine", which premiered on his concert in Bergen, two days before and some concerts on the "Walker Tour". The track was made in collaboration with David Whistle. Its music video on YouTube has over 30 million views,[34] and 23 million plays on Spotify.[35]

At the beginning of 2017, Walker's YouTube channel became the most subscribed channel registered in Norway, after passing about 4.5 million subscribers, and had the most views among Norwegian YouTubers at around 3.4 billion views as of 10 February 2018.[36][2]

On 7 April, Walker released the song "Ignite" instrumental version, which featured Norwegian music producer and songwriter K-391. It was released as a promotion of the launch of the Sony Xperia XZs smartphone. On 19 May, Walker released his first song with a male vocalist, Irish singer-songwriter Gavin James, titled "Tired". Walker said that the song "adds another dimension" to his productions. Its music video on YouTube has over 102 million views.[37] On 9 June, his collaboration with Dane Alex Skrindo, "Sky", was released on the compilation, Insomniac Records Presents: EDC Las Vegas 2017. Its music video on YouTube has over 36 million views.[38]

On 15 September, he released "The Spectre", a revamped version with vocals of his 2015 single "Spectre". The video depicts footage of his concerts, along with a team of dancers dressed in white jumpsuits and black helmets. The video currently has over 430 million views.

On 27 October, Walker released the song "All Falls Down", which featured American singer Noah Cyrus and British DJ and record producer Digital Farm Animals. The video storyline follows the visual for his previous song "Tired". Its YouTube music video has been viewed over 132 million times.[39][40]

During this year, Walker became the top YouTuber in Norway with 15 million subscribers.[41]
On 16 January, in an interview with Fuse, Walker revealed that an upcoming album is coming later in the year. "It's still in progress, not ready," Walker said. "I can't tell you much about features on it or anything yet, but I'm really, really excited about this one."[42]

On 11 May, Walker and Norwegian music producer K-391 (Kenneth Nilsen) released "Ignite" vocal version, which featured Norwegian singer Julie Bergan and South Korean singer Seungri.[43][44][45] The music video was released on 12 May on K-391's YouTube channel, because Nilsen was the lead artist of this single.[43] Its YouTube music video has been viewed over 100 million times.[46][47]

Walker was originally known as "DJ Walkzz". Since he has been a part of many producing groups, he later became just "Walkzz". He ended up using his real name, Alan Walker, as his artist name. The recognisable logo consists of intertwined letters "A" and "W", the initials of his name, was designed by Walker himself in 2013.[52] He also uses a hoodie and face mask resembling the concept of black bloc on stage to create the rest of the image.[53]

"At the very beginning, we were thinking about ideas like how can we promote Alan Walker as an artist, and then we created a symbol that's kind of almost attach anyone. Therefore, you can just have the hoodie and the mask and you immediately become a 'Walker'. That's also a sign of no matter who you are, you can be a 'Walker', we're all equal." Walker explained the concept of his look, in an interview by KKBox.[54] When asked in an interview by NRK, why he used the mask, he said: "It is to keep a low profile while maintaining the public image they have given me. I think it's pretty cool. A little twist that makes people ask themselves questions about who really is the person behind Alan Walker", and added, "Basically, all of the data-world, focus on anonymity. Anyone can join Alan Walker, and the masks show that they can be anyone."[53]

In the first promo pictures his management handed out, Walker's face was barely visible at all. Also in the music video for his single "Alone", he is dressed as a black shadow figure. This is, according to the artist himself, a carefully planned image drawn up together with the record company Sony. "In a meeting with them we talked about how we could build the profile of Alan Walker", said Walker to the newspaper VG. "They asked about my interests. I replied PC, computer gaming and stuff like Anonymous and computer hacking where hoodies play a role."[55]

At a press conference on 9 November 2016, Walker said: "The concept with the mask is very cool, that is inspired by the hacker group "Anonymous" and the television series Mr. Robot. I have a background as a gamer and kept on with it before I started with music. By taking on a mask I can be immediately seen as a gamer."[56]

"A lot of people ask me why I am wearing a mask. The mask is more of a sign and a symbol of unity and being alike each other, rather than me being different." said Walker, behind the scenes of the single "Alone".[57][58]